Purchase Orders – Shipping Containers

Overview

Sellercloud helps you track and manage the shipping and receiving process for Purchase Orders (POs) delivered with Shipping Containers. This workflow allows you to stay on top of different parts of the process, from the initial order placement to the arrival of the shipping container at the shipping port and up to the receiving of the purchased items at your warehouse.

You can also use this workflow to group together multiple regular POs just to organize the receiving process. Once you receive orders grouped with the shipping container feature, associated POs are automatically updated with any relevant information, such as received quantities.

When a single PO contains multiple items, you can split it into multiple shipping containers. To see a PO’s shipping containers, go to the PO Details Page, click Toolbox, and select the Shipping Containers tab.

Manage Shipping Containers

There are two pages related to shipping containers:

• The Shipping Containers Page:
  • Lets you create new shipping containers.
  • Lets you view all your shipping containers and filter them in various ways, such as by shipping or receiving status.
  • Lets you perform bulk actions on multiple containers simultaneously, such as changing their shipping or receiving status.
  • To access the Shipping Containers page, go to Purchasing > Shipping Containers.
• The Shipping Container Details Page:
  • Each individual shipping container has its own Shipping Container Details page.
  • This page lets you view and manage everything about a specific shipping container, such as shipping and receiving, expected delivery dates, and more.
  • To access the Shipping Container Details page, navigate to Shipping Containers and click on a Container ID.

Search Shipping Containers

You can view and manage your Shipping Containers by going to Purchasing > Shipping Containers. The Shipping Containers page consists of three components:

• Search Filters – Search options that let you narrow down your results and show only the shipping containers you are interested in. You can save specific searches for repeat use.
• Search Results – A list of containers that match your search criteria. You can sort it differently and even show or hide different data columns.
• Actions – A wide range of actions you can perform on one shipping container at a time or in bulk. These actions help you manage your containers quickly and easily.

Filters

Filters offer multiple-choice selection lists or allow you to enter specific values. Your choices build on each other. Each subsequent choice narrows the scope of your search results further and affects what the page displays. You can add as many filters as you like or none at all.

There are Default filters that are always displayed and Custom filters that you can display manually by clicking the Add filter button and selecting a filter from the list. To remove a custom filter from the page, click the Trash icon next to it.

After you click Search, each filter you apply gets highlighted in orange or green. If a filter is gray or not displayed at all, it’s not active. You can add or remove filters and search again at any time.

Once you set up your filters, click Save View to Save the Search. Then, you can repeat the same search by selecting it from the Saved Views menu on the top right.

Refer to the tables below for all filters and their descriptions.

Default filters

Custom filters

Search Results

The search results show a list of shipping containers matching your search criteria. This list is comprised of various data columns showing related information. You can add, remove, and re-order data columns by clicking the three dots icon on the top right and selecting Customize Columns.

You can also sort the containers in a different order based on a specific column using the Sort by drop-down menu.

Refer to the table below for all data columns and their descriptions.

Actions

The Shipping Containers page also offers actions you can perform on one container at a time or in bulk. These actions help you quickly manage your containers.

The Actions icon is located on the bottom right of the page. By default, it is a green plus icon that lets you create a new container. However, the icon turns blue when you select containers from the search results by checking the boxes to their left. Once it’s blue, you can click it to perform actions on any selected containers.

Refer to the table below for all actions and their descriptions.

Create Shipping Containers

To create a shipping container:

1. Go to the Shipping Containers page.
2. Click the green plus icon at the bottom right.
   
3. Complete as follows:
   1. The Container Name must match the container ID your Vendor provided when applicable. Enable the Client Setting Do Not Allow Duplicate PO Container Names to enforce a container name validation, preventing duplicate container names.
      
   2. The Receiving Warehouse where the items are expected to arrive. It must match the receiving Warehouse on any POs you plan to add to this container.
   3. The Shipping Status indicates the container’s current stage within the shipping process: Receiving Errors, Not Shipped, Shipped, Not Arrived, or Arrived.
   4. Shipped On is the date when the container has been or will be shipped.
   5. The Estimated Arrival Date is the date when the items are expected to arrive at the warehouse.
   6. Click Create.
      

Add Items to a Container

You can fill a container with items manually or by importing a file.

Manually

To add items to a container manually:

1. Go to the Shipping Container Details page.
2. Click the Add New Item plus icon at the top right of the Items panel.
   
3. Search for items by SKU. Optionally, you can filter your search by clicking the Add Filter button. You can filter by PO ID, PO Description, or Warehouse.
   
4. When an item appears next to the correct PO, check the box to the left to select it.
   
5. Enter the Qty For Container in the last field to the right.
6. Click Add & Close. Alternatively, click Add Selected to keep searching and adding items.
   

File Import

To import products to a Shipping Container via a file:

1. Go to the Shipping Container Details page.
2. Click the Download template icon at the top right of the Items panel.
   
3. Fill out the spreadsheet template:
   1. POID – A PO’s unique identification number.
   2. POItemID – The automatically generated line item ID on the PO. You can find it by going to the PO > Toolbox > Items tab. You can also use it to update items in the shipping container.
   3. ProductID – The product’s SKU.
   4. QtyShipped – The item’s quantity in the container.
      
4. Click the Upload New Items icon and select the updated spreadsheet.
   

Receive Containers

You can mark the items in a shipping container as received for one container at a time or for multiple containers in bulk:

Single Container

To receive items in a single container:

1. Go to the Shipping Container Details page.
2. In the upper right, click Actions and select the appropriate option:
   1. Receive Full Container – Mark all items in the container as fully received at the warehouse. This action sets the Container Status to Received and updates the Received On date and any Received item quantities. The received inventory will appear in the selected warehouse, and the relevant POs will also update their Status to Partially Received or Fully Received and reflect any Received item quantities.
   2. Receive Selected Container Items – Mark only specific selected items as received at the warehouse. This action updates any Received item quantities. If all items are received after this action, it also sets the Container Status to Received and updates the Received On date. The received inventory will appear in the selected warehouse, and the relevant POs will also update their Status to Partially Received or Fully Received and reflect any Received item quantities.
   3. Receive Container Items (Custom Quantity) – Mark partial item quantities as received at the warehouse. This action updates any Received item quantities. If all items are received after this action, it also sets the Container Status to Received and updates the Received On date. The received inventory will appear in the selected warehouse, and the relevant POs will also update their Status to Partially Received or Fully Received and reflect any Received item quantities.
   4. Delete Container Items Receiving – Delete any received quantities of items in the container, which also sets the quantities in the Received column back to 0. If you do this action for all items in the container, it also clears the Received On date.
      

Multiple Containers

To receive items in multiple containers:

1. Go to the Shipping Containers page and find the containers with items to receive.
2. Check the boxes to the left of the containers to select them.
3. Click the blue Actions icon at the bottom right.
   
4. Select Receive Containers. This action updates the Received On date and any Received item quantities.
5. Specify the Warehouse where the shipments will be received. 
6. Fill in the Bin Name if receiving in a Bin-Enabled warehouse.
7. Click Receive. This action sets the Container Status to Received and updates the Received On date and any Received item quantities for all selected containers. The received inventory will appear in the selected warehouse, and the relevant POs will also update their Status to Partially Received or Fully Received and reflect any Received item quantities.
8. The action turns into a Queued Job.

Update Container Statuses

You can update your shipping containers’ statuses for one container at a time or multiple containers in bulk:

Single Container

To update a single container’s statuses:

1. Go to the Shipping Container Details page.
2. Click Edit.
3. Update the Container Status field to change the container’s general status: Saved, Ordered, Pending, Received, or Completed.
4. Update the Shipping Status field to change the container’s shipping status: Arrived, Not Arrived, Shipped, Not Shipped, or Receiving Errors.
   
5. Click Save.

Multiple Containers

To update multiple containers’s statuses:

1. Go to the Shipping Containers page.
2. Search to find containers. Optionally, you can filter them by their current status:
   1. Shipping Status – Show only containers with one or more Shipping Status values: Arrived, Not Arrived, Shipped, Not Shipped, or Receiving Errors.
   2. Container Status – Show only containers with one or more specific Container Status values: Saved, Ordered, Pending, Received, or Completed.
   3. Received – Show only containers with one or more receival status values: Fully Received, Partially or Fully Received, Partially Received, None or Partially Received, or Not Received.
      
3. Check the boxes to the left of the containers to select them.
4. Click the blue Actions icon on the bottom right.
   
5. Select from the following status-related actions:
   1. Receive Containers – Mark all items in the selected containers as fully received at the warehouse. This action sets the Container Status to Received and updates the Received On date and any Received item quantities. The received inventory will appear in the selected warehouse, and the relevant POs will also update their Status to Partially Received or Fully Received and reflect any Received item quantities.
   2. Set Containers Status – Update the selected containers’ Container Status field to Saved, Ordered, Pending, Received, or Completed.
   3. Mark Arrived – Set the Shipping Status of the selected containers to Arrived to indicate they arrived at the shipping port.
   4. Mark Not Arrived – Set the Shipping Status of the selected containers to Not Arrived to indicate they have not arrived at the shipping port.
   5. Mark Exported – Set the Exported status of the selected containers to Exported.
   6. Mark Un-Exported – Set the Exported status of the selected containers to Not Exported.

Container Costs

Container shipping, duties & tariffs, and other expenses can be reflected in an item’s Average Cost.